is both possible and impossible, often at the same time. Politics in this sort of agreement is really a roll of the dice. A man like Armand Hammer, for in- stance, never leaves the Soviet Union without a signed agreement. Won't leave until he has a piece of paper in his hand. Togo back for a moment, I went ahead and constructed the gal- leries you were in this morning. I had a hunch something would happen, and it paid off. First, though, there was a stagnant period. Everything was 'Nyet.' Not a chance. I said to my- self, 'We will wait for a cultural agreement.' I had a strange confidence that one thing would come out of a summit-a cultural agreement. That would be the meeting of the minds. When the agreement finally came, in November of 1985, we were ready. We were all geared up. Cables went back and forth. Curators went back and forth. The Soviets agreed to send over forty pictures in eighty days. Quick movement was required. W e live, after all, in the real world, and one never knows how long any of this harmony will last. I put great pressure on them for the magnificent 'Harmony in Red.' It had been promised for a French exhibit, but I managed to get it for our museum. "I want to talk for a moment about some of the paintings. That great Pi- casso of the three women; 1908. He is getting into African art. When you look at it, you realize he is in the midst of a search rather thana discovery. I am fascinated with this picture-its monumentality. There is a back- ground for it-Cézanne bathers. The women have their arms over their heads as though drying themselves. Russet. Clay colors. Wonderful colors. But Picasso is putting his entire weight into the form rather than the color. The energy is palpable. The figures are bursting from the canvas. I see the picture as going back to Mi- chelangelo's 'Bound Slave,' in the Louvre, rather than to the Cézanne. Picasso knew his art history, and he was certainly familiar with that sculp- ture. As for the Picasso 'Still Life with Skull,' perhaps 1907, that, too, grips me. Picasso made conundrums, and there are many in this painting. There is, of course, a long history of vanitas still-lifes, and this picture has many objects reflecting pleasure. There are books, a pipe, a palette with brushes, per haps a mirror reflecting death and the skull itself. But there is a mystery in the upper right of the picture. I can sense a nude woman in what may be a mirror or a picture frame, and she has a hysterical gri- mace. Perhaps her hands are over her head, as in the incomparable 'Three Women ' We really don't know. There is a theory that while painting Picasso looked out his studio window and saw the body of a neighboring German painter, Vigels, who had hanged himself in his studio window. This may well be the basis of the pic- ture." Mr. Brown looked out at the misty Capitol dome. "It is a gray day," he said. W HEN I left Mr. Brown's office, I ran into Charles Stuckey, the curator of modern painting. "Let's have a cup of coffee," he said, and he led me into a nearby employee cafete- ria. Mr. Stuckey is in his early forties, with large eyes and, again, great en- thusiasm. "As you know," he said, "this entire show is based on Carter Brown's visit to Lugano. There has been a true exchange with the Soviets. W e have sent over forty paintings, including Courbets, Degas, Bonnards, Cézannes, Pissarros, Monets, Sisleys, and so on. There was hard bargaining on a high professional level over each painting. Each picture was carefully examined. Curiously, they had their hearts set on one picture, our Manet 'Dead Toreador.' They had seen it re- produced, and they simply had to have it. They got it. Once the summit took place, last November, I promptly went to Leningrad and to Moscow, with David Bull, who is the head of paint- ing conservation here. Bargaining, bargaining. I still don't know how Carter Brown managed the 'Harmony in Red.' But there it is, downstairs. I must tell you that everybody was bending over backward to understand everybody else. The most touching thing is that the pictures we sent to Russia have been viewed by thou- sands of people, standIng long hours in long lines at, for instance, twenty- eight degrees below zero. That says something about the needs of people everywhere. When you are dealing _ t .:- "'Ie- II 4 ----. . ...:;.. I ì{J ").. . - ', l ::!"'- '-I;'\/ . / i ,/ - ,.., - . ',.,.. _..,,/ c' i ----' \ t "- ._;p;' -- - ; -- \ -- --. - -:==::::-- 4.3'fIJ Stc- 71 with the Russians, you are dealing with people who know what they are doing. We were always sizing one another up. To our surprise, at first they didn't want Monet's 'Garden at Vetheuil.' It wasn't a haystack and it wasn't a water lily. But they changed their minds. They wanted, for in- stance, more Degas than Cézanne. They have, they feel, too many Corots. Funny thing, you might have a hard time interesting them in a show by David, for instance, but they would line up at all hours for Goya, EI Greco, Picasso. All Spaniards. And they truly love Gauguin. I guess he represents sunshine and warmth in the long Russian winters. We had some trouble explaining that we couldn't lend our great Picasso 'Family of Sal- timbanques.' It's part of the Chester Dale Collection and, under the terms of the acquisition, never to be lent. Bull and I concentrated on obtaining the great Matisse 'Conversation.' It has never been seen before in this country. I was so impressed by Ma- tisse's blue striped pajamas that I went over to Woodward & Lothrop the other day and bought a pair that look very much like those pajamas. They are tight. While we were dealing with the staffs of the museums-with, for example, A. G. Kostenevich, of the Hermitage, and M. Bessonova, of the Pushkin ( she is a woman, by the way )- Armand Hammer was dealing on another level, with the ministries, the political people. Incidentally, the director of the Hermitage has been there forty years, the director of the Pushkin thirty. One must bear in mind that the exchange process is just start- ing. There has been a quantum leap in the last three or four months between the two countries. We have experi- enced quite an education dealing with our Russian counterparts. After all, they have a longer museum tradition than we do. I don't know where these people were trained, but I do know that if there were Olympic prizes for museum skills these people would come up with gold medals." After leaving Mr. Stuckey, I had a brief encounter with John Wilmer- ding, the gallery's deputy director. He, too, is immensely personable, knowl- edgeable, and outgoing . We talked for a few moments of the Shelburne Mu- seum, in Vermont, which was founded by his grandmother, Mrs. J. Watson Webb. It happens to be one of my favorites-a potpourri of everything from farm implements to a side- wheeler and duck decoys. "That side-